That 50 Comics Meme

All right, I am doing this meme based on that list of "50 Things that Every Great Comics Collection Needs to Have."

I am, of course, not really a comic collector so much as I am a comic reader, and therefore I feel less guilty than I probably should about the one-sidedness of the list of comics I possess. However, most of the people who've done this meme actually have a pretty awesome collection, so I thought I'd skew the data by being someone who really doesn't, thus displaying my own shameless lameness. Still, there's a lot on that list that I don't have that I sure do wish I did.


Leave Plain = Things I don't have
Make Bold = Things I do have
Italics = I have some but probably not enough (optional)
Underline = I don't agree I need this (optional)

1. Something From The ACME Novelty Library
2. A Complete Run Of Arcade
3. Any Number Of Mini-Comics
4. At Least One Pogo Book From The 1950s
5. A Barnaby Collection
6. Binky Brown and the Holy Virgin Mary
7. As Many Issues of RAW as You Can Place Your Hands On

8. A Little Stack of Archie Comics
It would take some digging but I think I could lay my hands on some of these, mainly 60s-70s era books.

9. A Suite of Modern Literary Graphic Novels
10. Several Tintin Albums

11. A Smattering Of Treasury Editions Or Similarly Oversized Books
Several, including one featuring the Legion of Superheroes. I actually never cared much for this format, even as a kid--it was hard to find a comfortable way to sit and read them--but you definitely got a better look at the art than usual, which was fun.

12. Several Significant Runs of Alternative Comic Book Series
13. A Few Early Comic Strip Collections To Your Taste
14. Several "Indy Comics" From Their Heyday

15. At Least One Comic Book From When You First Started Reading Comic Books
I have well over one of these. :)

16. At Least One Comic That Failed to Finish The Way It Planned To
17. Some Osamu Tezuka
18. The Entire Run Of At Least One Manga Series

19. One Or Two 1970s Doonesbury Collections
I think just the one. My brother had more, so I read his and didn't have to get them.

20. At Least One Saul Steinberg Hardcover
21. One Run of A Comic Strip That You Yourself Have Clipped

22. A Selection of Comics That Interest You That You Can't Explain To Anyone Else
I am sure that this is true of something I own, although honestly, I kind of doubt that any narrow comic interest anyone has is really all that narrow.

23. At Least One Woodcut Novel

24. As Much Peanuts As You Can Stand
I actually can't stand as much Peanuts as a lot of folks seem to be able to, because I burned out on them as a kid when we had so many stacks of those little paperbacks. I've got a few, though. And sometimes you're just in the mood.

25. Maus
I have the first volume, and I had the second until I loaned it to a nice young goth boy a few years back. I may or may not get it back, but I think this still counts as having it.

26. A Significant Sample of R. Crumb's Sketchbooks
27. The original edition of Sick, Sick, Sick.
28. The Smithsonian Collection Of Newspaper Comics

29. Several copies of MAD
I've actually probably got quite a few 70s MADs. Also some CRACKEDs.

30. A stack of Jack Kirby 1970s Comic Books
Well, duh.

31. More than a few Stan Lee/Jack Kirby 1960s Marvel Comic Books
Well, also duh.

32. A You're-Too-High-To-Tell Amount of Underground Comix

33. Some Calvin and Hobbes
Somewhere, but I know I've got at least one--although this is kind of like the Doonesbury thing in that I usually borrowed my brother's.

34. Some Love and Rockets
35. The Marvel Benefit Issue Of Coober Skeber
36. A Few Comics Not In Your Native Tongue
37. A Nice Stack of Jack Chick Comics

38. A Stack of Comics You Can Hand To Anybody's Kid
There are probably some old Richie Rich and Casper books out in the barn, maybe even some Disney Scrooge comics. Alternatively, we've got some old Teen Titans Go, and the nine-year-old has a good-sized stack of Scooby and Marvel Adventures Avengers.

39. At Least A Few Alan Moore Comics
Possibly just the Watchmen trade.

40. A Comic You Made Yourself
41. A Few Comics About Comics
42. A Run Of Yummy Fur
43. Some Frank Miller Comics
44. Several Lee/Ditko/Romita Amazing Spider-Man Comic Books
45. A Few Great Comics Short Stories
46. A Tijuana Bible
47. Some Weirdo

48. An Array Of Comics In Various Non-Superhero Genres
Again, I couldn't lay my hands on them right away but I know they're there.

49. An Editorial Cartoonist's Collection or Two
50. A Few Collections From New Yorker Cartoonists


And, since folks are also adding to the list...

Everyone ought to have The Spirit (the original) in some form.
And then there's Shooter's original LSH run.
Also, everyone ought to have a bit of Hembeck. :)